AN: I'm going to just admit it now. This chapter was done very lazily. I worked all day on it but nothing would make it piece together right. It's too choppy for my likings and I wish I could just eject the entire chapter. I'm going to blame it on the stupid 24 hour fasting I did today. My head is very foggy and I've been tired all day. Still, I'm going to say that I did try my best and I hope some of you will appreciate it. But don't say I didn't warn you.

Again, I'm still searching for a beta reader and am still uncertain as to how to go about locating one. Please email me or message me if you have information in that regard.

"Wake up, John," Kolya's voice ripped through the darkness of his unconscious. "It's time…"

John Sheppard's eyes fluttered open and it took him a moment before fully assessing his whereabouts. The memories of what previously happened only slowly came back to him as he looked to see Lieutenant Thompson's limp figure lying about three feet away from him. Her hair was undone from the tight bun she stuffed under her hat. It was flowing freely about her shoulders and the damp, stone cold floor they were both laying on.

Still feeling a bit numb in his extremities, John slowly lifted his arms to push himself up from the floor. His muscles protested in pain but he ignored the cries of his body as he pulled himself across to check on the Lieutenant.

Once he reached her form, he stretched across her back and placed two fingers on her neck, checking for a pulse. To his relief, he felt a heavy pounding beneath it. She was still alive…and still pumped with adrenaline, however suppressed by those damn stunners.

He left her and pulled his weight towards the closest wall to lean up against. Once he was sitting up, he looked around their prison. There were three stone walls that matched the floors and one open area that had sturdy black bars with the slight outline of a locked door to the far right. A torch was lit on the other side of the prison, providing what little light they had. He buried his face in his hands as he realized he was, once again, on the receiving end of the Genii's marvelous hospitality.

"How was your rest, Colonel?"

The deep voice was easily recognized, and Sheppard's head snapped in the direction he had heard it from.

Jagrin was grinning broadly, and pacing slowly in front of the metal bars – the only thing keeping John from ripping the arrogant man's face off.

"I've had better," the Colonel replied, playing along with the man's scornful friendly conversation. "But I'd like to thank you for the accommodations. The Genii have never been less than generous."

"Commander Kolya also informed me of your insatiable ability to use sarcasm to cover up pain," Jagrin sighed, cocking his head to the side in mock pity."It's a shame that it won't work with me."

Biting back the agony, John stood up to his full height. "All right, enough with the pleasantries then, what do you want from us?"

The Genii man smiled in that cruel fashion once again, "I already told you what I – we - wanted, Colonel. Would you like me to tell you again?"

"I'm not buying it," the Colonel growled, quickly growing tired of Jagrin's mind games. "What is it you really want? A Jumper? Weapons? News flash for you, you aren't getting any."

Jagrin chuckled. "What makes you think I would want any of those things? We're a small community – fifty Genii at the most. Any technology you might have would only draw attention to the Wraith."

Sheppard bit his lip. "Fine, I'll spell it out for you. What can I do to ensure the safety of my officer?"

The blonde man leaned slightly, peering around John to get a look at whom he was referring to. "You care about her?" he asked slyly.

"Of course I do, I'm her commanding officer, I'm responsible for what happens to her," the fury was building up in the Colonel, and he wanted nothing more than to crush the man's esophagus. He was more arrogant than Kolya but he wasn't more frightening to John than the older commander ever was. Right now, he was simply an overzealous young disciple to the devil.

"I'll keep that in mind then," Jagrin replied in such a tone that John wished he had never even mentioned his charge over Thompson. "For now, however, we'll get started on level one of your ongoing suffering."

Level one? What kind of sick game were these men playing?

Sheppard remained silent as he stepped back from the bars. Two other Genii men now appeared from around the corner, one of them hit a button on a console near the side wall that the Colonel hadn't seen before. Suddenly, a blue light appeared and rapidly disintegrated in front of him, revealing that there had been more than just metal bars between him and the taste of freedom.

They lifted a lock on the back of the door and pushed it open, stepping inside to each grab a hold of John's arms. With a tight grip on both of his biceps, they began dragging him out.

The noise of the struggle had woken Thompson. She slowly pushed herself up with a wild look of fear in her eyes. "Colonel!" she shouted helplessly, forcing herself to her feet as she realized the situation was growing more dire when they took her commanding officer out of the cell and into the corridor.

"Don't feel left out," Jagrin told her softly with a cruel grin on his face, "your turn will come."

Her pulse quickened and her mouth went dry at his words. She watched in horror as Colonel Sheppard disappeared from her sight to God knew where.

xXx

The last thing John had seen was the stone walls the Genii soldiers had pushed him past. Then, he was blindfolded and pushed roughly into a seat with his hands tied behind it with a strong rope that cut through his skin when he tried to struggle. All was quiet and the only sounds he could hear were the soft pants of the soldiers who had a workout trying to get him from point A to point B, and the creaking of the seemingly old chair he was currently sitting on.

"How high is your threshold for pain, Colonel?" Jagrin's voice pierced through the deafening silence like a knife. John heard snapping, akin to leather gloves being slipped on and then tightened. He swallowed quietly, and prepared the mental blockers he had been trained to use for years in situations of intense agony.

He decided against answering the man, he knew it was rhetorical anyway. As long as he could, Sheppard would not play a part in this twisted game left behind by Kolya to ensure his suffering.

"I asked you a question," Jagrin spoke again in such a tone it made the Colonel visibly flinch. "I didn't gag you, you can speak."

John still didn't say a word. Whatever the Genii wanted him to say, it obviously would be of some enjoyment to him. And Sheppard wasn't going to give him that.

He heard a low rumble and realized that Jagrin was chuckling. "You're a stubborn man, John Sheppard. But refusing to speak will not save you or your precious officer. I would think if anything, you would want to prolong your lives…especially hers."

Fearing the worst, the Colonel finally relented. "You're sick."

Pain suddenly enveloped him and he felt like he had just been hit head-on by a train. It took him a moment to realize he'd been struck in the face – more specifically, the one blindfolded eye. He could already feel it throbbing and starting to bruise. "Great," he muttered to himself and leaned his head back to try and block out the pain.

"That's not even a fraction of what you'll experience before you die, Sheppard," the Genii man sighed in what sounded like boredom. He heard more snapping and finally resolved that Jagrin did have gloves on so he wouldn't hurt himself in the process of beating John to a pulp. What a pussy.

Another blow was delivered to his abdomen and a more poignant agony spread throughout his body. "Gah!" he shouted out in pain and ground his teeth together, his mental barriers breaking down. After the pain slightly subsided, he breathed in deeply, trying to calm himself and push past the anguish.

"How much can you withstand before you blackout from the pain?"

If he had wanted an answer, Jagrin didn't give him time to provide him one because a millisecond later, he was hit square in his mouth, knocking his face to the left. Sheppard held it there while the blood in his mouth began dripping down and his lip began to swell. Flicking his tongue out, he tasted blood, and tried to assess how much damage was done by feeling around the sensitive areas.

Suddenly, the blindfold was lifted from his face, and his was greeted by his torturer's sarcastically pleasant face. The Colonel glared at him from his position, swearing to himself that he wouldn't give this man any sort of satisfaction, which meant absolutely no pleading for mercy.

He moved his head slightly, trying to straighten up but the lightheadedness caused by the smacking around made it hard for him to hold his head up. The blood continued to drip from his mouth onto his shirt and it wouldn't stop.

"Are you done being too prideful to beg for me to stop?" Jagrin asked haughtily, stooping to John's level and staring at him straight in the eyes.

Sheppard's focus was getting hazy and he was beginning to see double. His mind was also becoming fuzzy and wouldn't have been able to do a simple math problem if he wanted to. However, he was lucid enough to spit out the one word he needed - "never."

The Genii man seemed pleased with this response as he backed away. For one brief moment, the Colonel was beginning to think that the torture was over. But then, a knife was pulled out from Jagrin's belt and he twirled it around in his fingers. The dagger itself was menacing. It was a curved blade and had two notches in the top – which would make whatever it would stab into experience double the agony.

The Colonel must have shown a brief flash of fear in his eyes for his torturer laughed delightfully. "No doubt you wish for clemency now, Colonel."

John didn't say a word but kept his eye on the weapon that was quickly approaching. His mind was threatening to collapse but he knew that that was what Jagrin wanted and willed himself to stay conscious.

Jagrin tossed the knife up in the air and caught it by its handle. "Don't look so afraid, John," he assured, gripping Sheppard by the neck and twisting it up. "I won't kill you….yet."

The Colonel could no longer restrain his cries of pain and he screamed in anguish as the dagger penetrated his left shoulder. But the entry was not as excruciating as when Jagrin unmercifully twisted it, and ripped it out. He screamed again, the pain too unbearable to be stubborn any longer. John closed his eyes tightly and passed out.